Modern high speed, subsonic commercial aircraft typically have wings with a variety of leading edge and trailing edge devices to change the shape of the wings as the flight conditions change. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, an existing wing 10 includes a leading edge portion 20 having a plurality of trailing edge devices 5. The trailing edge devices 5 can include an aileron 6 for roll control at low speed, two flaps 8 for increased lift at low speed, a “flaperon” 7, which can act as a flap at low speed and an aileron at high speed, and two spoiler assemblies 9 for increasing drag and/or inhibiting lift during flight and/or after landing.
One potential drawback with the foregoing arrangement is that each different type of trailing edge device is generally configured in a different, function-specific manner. Accordingly, each wing generally includes a multitude of trailing edge devices having different mechanical arrangements, different actuator arrangements, different functions and different flight capabilities. These differences can lead to increased costs for manufacturing and maintaining the wing 10, and can increase the overall weight of the aircraft.